“Art is a weapon for me, with which I can strike back.”
Interview by Marc Kayser, art-magazine Quest, Berlin, March 2004
Gottfried Helnwein è un pittore, fotografo, scenografo e performance artist austriaco di origine irlandese.
Ha studiato all'Università di Arte Visiva a Vienna .
Gli è stato aggiudicato il premio Maestro della classe dall'Università d'Arte Visiva a Vienna, il premio Kardinal-Konig e il trofeo Theodor-Korner.
I suoi primi lavori consistono soprattutto di iper-acquarelli realistici, che raffigurano bambini feriti, come pure esibizioni spesso con bambini in luoghi pubblici. Helnwein è un artista concettuale, che si occupa principalmente di psicologia e ansia sociale, questioni storiche e argomenti politici. Per questo motivo il suo lavoro è spesso considerato provocatorio e polemico. Ha lavorato come pittore, disegnatore, fotografo, muralista, scultore e performance artist, usando una vasta varietà di tecniche e mezzi. Helnwein è anche conosciuto per aver progettato i palcoscenici e disegnato i costumi per teatro, balletto e produzioni operistiche. Fra queste la Staatsoper Hamburg, la Volksbühne di Berlino e l'Opera di Los Angeles.
Wikipedia
“Art is a weapon for me, with which I can strike back.”
Interview by Marc Kayser, art-magazine Quest, Berlin, March 2004
“I never understood why some people seemed to have fun causing pain to someone smaller.”
Interview by Brendan Maher http://www.gottfried-helnwein-interview.com/index.html, Start, Ireland, November 24, 2004
Contesto: When I started to paint, I painted children because I just felt that I wanted to take their side. What always upset me was how children are getting abused simply because they are physically weaker and not capable of defending themselves – how they get raped, enslaved and killed. I never understood why some people seemed to have fun causing pain to someone smaller.
Interview by Yuichi Konno, Yaso magazine, Japan, 2003
Interview by Brendan Maher http://www.gottfried-helnwein-interview.com/index.html, Start, Ireland, November 24, 2004
Interview by Michal Szyksznian http://www.gottfried-helnwein-interviews.com/interviews/celebritarian.html, celebritarian.pl, 2009
Memories of Duckburg, http://www.helnwein.com/texte/helnweintexts/artikel_398.html, Zeit Magazin, Hamburg, 1989
Interview by Helmut Sorge, Los Angeles, 2006
Memories of Duckburg, http://www.helnwein.com/texte/helnweintexts/artikel_398.html, Zeit Magazin, Hamburg, 1989
Interview by Yuichi Konno, Yaso magazine, Japan, 2003
Interview by Michal Szyksznian http://www.gottfried-helnwein-interviews.com/interviews/celebritarian.html, celebritarian.pl, 2009
Presence and Time: Gottfried Helnwein's Pictures http://www.helnwein-museum.com/article2534.html, Stella Rollig, director of the Lentos Museum of Modern Art Linz, 2006
“Helnwein is a very fine artist and one sick motherfucker.”
Robert Crumb, letter to his San Francisco art-dealer Martin Muller, 1992
William S. Burroughs, Helnwein's Work http://www.helnwein.com/texte/selected_authors/artikel_103.html, Lawrence, Kansas, 1990
Peter Gorsen, about the depiction of wounded children in Helnwein's work, Albertina Museum catalogue, Gottfried Helnwein solo-exhibition, 1985, www.gottfried-helnwein-child.com http:////www.gottfried-helnwein-child.com/index.html